"Stupendous" a Beyond Reality Picture

[armisiano]

OFFICIAL TRAILER IS HERE!!!
"STUPENDOUS: THE TRAILER"
http://vimeo.com/3233100



01/09/2009
"Stupendous" is the story of a superhero coping with the loss of his powers.

01/14/2009
Well preproduction is off and running. We have locations secured, a script finalized that I'm VERY happy with (I think it's hytsterical, dry, I love it), and audition listings were posted and actors are being scheduled. I was even able to secure the local Time Warner Television Studio as the audition location (thanks to my knowing the director of programming, it's free of charge). So yay. Auditions are Tuesday the 20th, will post the cast list when finalized.

01/17/2009
So I finished the "first draft" of an animated nighttime news type background to be used during a breif news broadcast. Please share thoughts on it. http://vimeo.com/2867116

Also, have nearly finished construction of a portable set (it's a bus stop). Basically I needed a bus stop, didn't like where any were, but liked a location and felt it needed one, and that way I don't have to worry about a bus coming every 15 minutes. When it's complete I'll post pics.

I'm so excited, I'm fully booked for auditions from 5 to 9 pm on Tuesday. We've got a good turn out this time, let's hope all goes well. Would love to post screen tests of final choices, but don't want to ruin the first viewing of the film by people already knowing a big chunk of the dialogue. Ah well. Maybe I'll just mute them.

01/19/2009
Just finished the poster (see above). About 9 hours of straight work, but totally worth it. Stitched together using nothing but photographs I've taken, I'm pretty happy with it. For anyone who doesn't get the tagline, the original "Superman: The Motion Picture" tagline was, "YOU'LL BELIEVE A MAN CAN FLY". Since no one is cast yet, you'll have to ignore all the scrawl info at the bottom, most of it is just silliness to take up space for now. Nevertheless, Ta-Dah.


01/20/2009
Finished the bus stop (SEE SECOND POST). To date the largest prop I've ever made. In fairness though I'm only 3'2", so it's bairly 5'. In all honesty, I always feel a little awkward showing behind the scenes and making of stuff before the final project is seen. I dunno, I think it sort of takes away from that wonderful mystique about movies we all love so much, the illusion. Ah well, whatever. I know it's fun to watch things develop, and besides, illusion? Who am I foolin' on this site? And yes, I was facing the sun for this photograph, hence the dissappearence of my eyes.

Oh, and, auditions are in less than 5 hours, I'm excited and nervous. Let's hope there are so many stellar choices it's hard to decide. Hope. Hope. Hope.

1/21/2009
Auditions went well. There were some tough decisions to be made, but they were made over Denny's greasy greasy food. The main cast includes the following:
In the role of Mr. Stupendous, our hero, our lead, JAMES COTA. In the role of Diane Laude, our secondary lead, the news correspondent, MEI-LING DOWNEY. And in the role of Brian Donaldon, news anchor, a small but important part, THOMAS L. CRAIN.



There are still several very small roles (a few extras and one role with a line) yet to be cast.

01/22/2009
In trying to emulate the poster a small bit during a particular shot, I have gone to some lengths with color correction and matte work. Here are some low res before and after screen grabs.
Also the poster's been updated with the actors names now added to the crawl at the bottom.



1/24/2009
FRUSTRATION!!! Here it goes, the list of things that suck:
- Okay, so, firstly, organizing people's schedules sucks.
- The fact I have no rehearsal location sucks.
- Tonight I tried setting up some lights to do a green screen test, to discover I have burned out bulbs. Tomorrow I have a gig from 8am to 4pm (no lights needed thank god) but then a gig from like 5:30 to 10, in which I NEED LIGHTS! And the drive from location A to location B is a little over an hour. Also, there's a REALLY good chance that no place in San Diego will have 3 SYLVANIA 500W 3200K bulbs.
- Today I bought a small LCD HDTV from Best Buy to use as an external monitor (I'll be shooting a large chunk in a home, outlets everywhere), only to discover that the one I purchased, discounted a little due to previously being opened, is MISSING A REMOTE AND ALL CABLES AND PAPERWORK!!! IT'S JUST A TV!!!
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

01/25/2009
Today went really well. We had the first meeting with Barrie Kaufman, our costumer (you can see some of her work HERE), a little upset I forgot to bring the camera for some BTS photos. Also had our first read through/rehearsal (remembered the camera this time).
I'm the one with the clothing and hair style of an 8 year old. The guy with the light colored sweatshirt on is the producer, Ryan Cerutti.


01/28/2009
Got SO much accomplished today, and it all went REALLY easily (I'm scared). Got three, count em' THREE locations secured! Also got a couple extras cast, including Julie Benitez, and Griffin Benitez (both of whom should be awesome). Secured our stunt coordinator, Dominic Sherman. Bought some supplies for a green screened part of the film, and even managed to return that impulsively purchased Best Buy used TV with comfort, speed, and ease. Did a little rewriting of the script, and (sad to say) discovered that the budget is EVER CLIMBING. Ah well.

Two of the three new locations featured below. Location scouting photos taken with cell phone.


01/30/2009
I am happy to say Damian Sanchez, the extremely talented composer who put together the phenomenal score for my last film, "Sixty Seconds" (I love what he did, it suited the film perfectly) will be providing his skill to this project as well.

01/31/2009
4 things. First, the bench for the bus stop is almost done (SEE PHOTO ON SECOND POST). Well, actually it IS done, painted and all, but I only have a picture of it in it's naked form. The really cool thing about it is it's made to be transported and is disassembled with ease into 4 separate pieces (back, seat, and 2 legs). Secondly, finished work on a simple logo for a fake news broadcast.


Thirdly, we finished casting the remaining 8 or so extras. And fourthly, finished a mock up news microphone utilizing the above logo and some other supplies as well.

01/31/2009
All superheroes need an action figure. I've used files and whatnot to get the nose down to the right shape, and painted the eyes to more accurately represent James, our actor. I still need to do work to the jaw and chin. But hey, it's coming along. Funny thing, this may never even be seen on camera, I'd be surprised if we manage to stick it in the background somewhere. Right now though I have some down town. The next rehearsal and meeting isn't till Tuesday, so I've had about a week to just work on all the random little things as you've seen in the thread here. (See action figure pictures below on 2nd post)

02/03/2009
Second rehearsal went really well. Below is another rehearsal collage. First Mr. Stupendous costume fitting was together, went well, some notes were given and adjustments will be made. I'm looking forward to that. No pictures will be posted of the costume though I think before the first viewing date. Also, more work has been done on the Mr. Stupendous action figure, more sculpting of the face, work on the nose, jaw and chin to make it resemble our actor a bit more. I forgot how much I enjoy sculpting. Pictures of that to come some time soon.


02/08/2009
Found some time to do some work on the Brian Donaldson news segment. Still have to adjust some things, and add some more news type graphics, but it's off to a good start, here's a before and after shot below.


Also, I needed some extras. In fact, I needed some teenage extras. How do I do this? THAT'S RIGHT! TO THE LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL DRAMA DEPARTMENT!!! Some of my lovely teen extras are featured below, there may be one or two more yet to come. They are, in order from left to right:
Julia Lusitana, Rocio Arrieta, Craig Merker, Karla Zambrano, Andrew Jesse, Ivy Crocker, & Meg Smith


02/10/2009
Today was the last rehearsal. It went amazingly well, I'm so proud of my actors. A collage of some photos from the rehearsal is posted below in the next post, as well as a fun picture of James and Mei-Ling.
Also, the final Mr. Stupendous costume fitting was today, it too went very well, but no pictures were taken.
Finally, Kim Seidl is being kind enough to work as our on set photographer during the shoot. You can check out her website here: http://kseidlphoto.com/blog/


02/14/2009
Been SO BUSY LATELY!!! So productive though. Shot footage on the 11th, went well, very short clip but VERY funny. Much thanks to my highschool supporting players mentioned above for helping out. Will post screen grabs soon, hopefully tonight.

The main shoot was tonight (well, last night, as it is now 3:30am). Also went amazingly well, I think the footage is absolutely beautiful, very flattering to the actors, so everyone looks great. And everyone did a great job. This was the scene between James Cota (Mr. Stupendous) and Mei-Ling Downey (Diane Laude), the one they've been rehearsing for 3 weeks. The shoot took a long time, people arrived at 6, everyone and everything was FINALLY ready and got started around 7:45, broke for dinner at 9:45, and wrapped around 1:45. It's always so crazy to me the footage to final cut ratio. I have about 2 hours of footage for what is a three minute scene. Oh editing. How you will torment me so.

I will have some screen grabs from that as well hopefully by tonight. Sadly no behind the scenes photos till probably next week, as I have a photographer now getting them all who plans to just give me the whole bundle of pics when shooting wraps, which is Wednesday the 18th.

Anyway, I have to get up at about 9 to start tomorrow's shoot. WHEW!


Reserved.

[armisiano]

Decided to post some of the images and things I've used for inspiration for myself and others.
There's a part in the film featuring a walk on appearance of a homeless shopping cart lady (what film is complete without one?), and our lovely actress Julie Benitez is not only gracious enough to play this small role, but also put together her own costume and shopping cart prop. So I sent her the following two collages as inspiration. I DO NOT own the rights to these images, they were found via Google image search. As you will see I labeled specific things I liked about them.


These images were sent to the costume maker, Barrie Kaufman. The first is a black and white version (I want you guys to have SOMEWHAT of a fresh experience watching the film) of a first-go rough idea of a possible costume design. Well, I wasn't happy with it, I really drew it just to show basic color choices. So the second image is a collage of aviation pins (which I fell in LOVE with the look of), which was used as inspiration for the look and design of the costume in some weird way. The final design is pretty cool and I'm very fond of it. The overall design is supposed to have a somewhat classic old school DC comics 1930's & 40's feel to it.


ALL PROP/SET PIECE PHOTOS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO THIS POST.

01/20/2009 (BELOW)


01/31/2009 (BELOW)


01/31/2009 (BELOW)



02/10/2009
Rehearsal collage:


If this production were to have a Christmas Card, this would be it.

[armisiano]

Reserved for BTS shots during shooting (shooting Feb 6th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th & 18th) & SCREEN GRABS.

02/06/2009
Shooting Day 1 - February 6th, 2009

Shot Thomas L. Crain's portion of the film, playing news anchor Brian Donaldon. Below is a photo of the setup with items noted, below that, what I call a wanna be screen grab.


1. A 500W work light diffused by a thicker umbrella shining up onto the small green screen on the wall behind our actor. The other lights (note "5") lit it pretty well from above, this under light was to balance it out and hide any shadows cast by wrinkles.
2. One of the sound blankets. Placed much farther forward than it appears in this photo, the 20mm lens used to take this picture seems to distort our perception of the distances between the objects in this photo.
3. Microphone, actually much closer to our actor than it appears in this shot.
4. Stone grey felt was used to drape over the table half and act as a counter top. Why felt? So that it doesn't reflect the green screen behind him.
5. 2 3200K 500W bulbs. They were a bit higher up than they appear in this photo. The video camera's shot is basically looking right between them.
6. Sound blanket #2. I totally forgot my clamps at home, and ended up using vice grips from a local garage. They worked. You'll see at the base of the light stand that this blanket is clipped to a bag of sorts. That is a 10lb. sand bag that cost me only a few cents. At home depot you can buy a 40lb. bag of sand, as well as individual smaller empty bags FOR sand, all for under $2. After tying off the top, throw it into a plasic bag and seal it, and don't have to worry about any fine sand leaking.
7. The ol' DVX100B with LEX and Nikkor 85mm.
8. The ambiant light coming from the obercast sky outside bounced a nice soft cool light that worked as a sort of mild extra fill.

Fake screen grab below.


02/14/2009
SCREEN GRABS! FINALY! The following screen grabs have not been color corrected yet, just resized.
Below we see our hero being prepared for his big prime time interview.


We see our camera readying and out host opening her segment.


02/25/2009
A photo of me on camera while shooting the trailer has surfaced, and, looking damn sexy in it with that gear, it is now my favorite photo of myself.


02/28/2009
Got the behind the scenes photos today from our on set photographer, Kim Seidl, who did a FANTASTIC job. I have nearly 800 photos from her, it's incredible. Below are 9 that were chosen for this blog update. In case anyone hasn't noticed, I have intentionally avoided showing pictures featuring Mr. Stupendous, as we'd sort of like his presence in the film to be a very fresh experience for all watching. Yes, he WAS seen in the trailer, but we feel that's enough for now. After the premiere more BTS photos will be posted featuring him, which'll be easy as he's in 99% of them.

The photos below are labeled 1 though 9, and below that I have written what each one is. Enjoy, comment, and have a STUPENDOUS weekend.




1. Griffin Benitez, getting ready for his closeup as The Boy.
2. Our producer Ryan Cerutti demonstrating for the cast how to properly hang awkwardly from a dead tree. Thank you Ryan.
3. A hero's hair is a very important thing. Note the piece of tissue on his face that hasn't been removed since shaving moments before. Sadly no tissue is featured in the final film. You can also see sound proofing blankets all over the walls behind everything.
4. Me looking at pictures taken of the lighting setup we created a week earlier before shooting, trying desperately to recreate it. You'll notice my right hand is my light bulb hand.
5. Mei-Ling Downey (plays Diane Laude) sits on set in her gorgeous lighting laughing along with the rest of us at some stupid thing someone did.
6. From left to right, Rick Struble (production assistant), Ryan Cerutti (producer), and Anthony Misiano (writer/director) all smile with joy at a comedic moment going VERY well.
7. The incomparable Julie Benitez here in costume and with her fantastic prop, both of which she was left completely responsible for, playing our sexy homeless shopping cart lady. Look at the visual notes I gave her featured in the previous post above, and see how great a job she did. And to top it all off she was hysterical. Always a plus.
8. Rick Struble and myself getting a wide shop of a stupendous incident.
9. Lastly Mr. Stupendous at his apartment. Note the boots resting comfortably on the table, the news on, and the action figure proudly atop the electronics.

[cinealma]

Sounds great. I have that story idea written down in a notebook. I'm very interested to see what avenue you go down with it.


Cheers!

[stinkpot]

This sounds promising. Welcome to the fest!

[aravance]

Very cool concept. I really like this idea.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Really enjoyed your last entry.

Good luck!

MAH

[warau]

I love the poster! Looking forward to the film, sounds interesting.

[Lawsuit_Boy]

Nice work on the poster! Seems like it will be a fun viewing. And I got the Superman: The Movie reference.

[Rodney V. Smith]

nice...very very nice. the poster poo pooing ROCKS!